C&I 210: Chapter 1 Reflection By Kevin Williamson The first chapter of Child Growth and Development in Your Classroom

has many things to offer teachers. In this reflection, I will be talking about the concepts that I identified with the most which are: signs of students who are at-risk and cultural backgrounds. As a future teacher, knowing how to handle students who come from a variety of different cultures and exhibit questionable behavior prepares me for the challenges I will face. Build bridges between home and school (p. 22) is a good motto for teachers because doing so will give the teacher a better insight of where his/her students come from, help students feel more comfortable in the classroom setting, and eliminate generalizations. The latter is an important one because through experience, you realize everyones different, and nobody based on ethnicity, race, or socioeconomic status can be summed up with broad bias. If anything is generalized, its the risk factors; and not by a whole lot. Risk factors are variables associated with negative child outcomes (p.23). I will probably learn from this in much more detail when I observe in schools and when I become a teacher. I learned from the text that risk factors are everywhere, and most are out of the students control. But the text also says that teachers can be protective factors too. How they can be, is only given in a few examples. What Id like to know is how to encourage students living in poverty. Any grade level applies here, but this chapter glances over it.

I dont think there were enough examples in this chapter. Perhaps it was just an introductory chapter laying down the groundwork, but everything seemed generalized. Additional case studies would be appreciated. I would probably relate more as a student and a future teacher.